Q&A: SLUG Zombies designer John Rauschelbach

If you've ever seen a SLUG Zombies mini figure, you're familiar with the work of John Rauschelbach.

John designed every character in the 2012 line by Jakks Pacific, which contains over 60 different released sculpts and remains popular among toy collectors. His work has also been present in toy aisles recently via Jakks' World of Nintendo Micro Mario World and Micro Smurfs Village sets, made up of mini figures and play environments. In addition to that, his portfolio contains a range of graphics, illustrations and product designs, from Creepy Crawlers packaging artwork to Game of Thrones beer steins.

After connecting with John on Instagram, I asked if he'd be up for answering a few questions about his work on SLUG and other projects. He kindly obliged, and also shared some very interesting designs and product images, including artwork for the scrapped SLUG Monsters and SLUG Aliens. Read on to find out about those unreleased series, additional Zombie figures that never made it to stores, and much more about the background and projects of the talented Mr. Rauschelback!


LW:  First, tell us a bit about your background and how you got into design/illustration. 

JR:  Like so many other kids I grew up drawing all the time. I knew for college I wanted to pursue some sort of artistic career. I ended up going to The Art Institute of Colorado in Denver, majoring in Industrial Design. I thought I might get into special effects and animatronics, but the focus was on product design. My first job out of college was working or a company that made water park structures. I was illustrating their concepts for marketing and sales. I was drawing pirate themes, tropical Islands, fantasy settings, all kinds of stuff. I think the variety helped down the road. When I moved to Los Angeles my portfolio showed a lot of playful fun products, so I was able to get a job in the toy industry.

Ron Burgundy 13" talking figure

Looking at your portfolio, you’ve worked on a wide range of projects in the toy industry, but also for theme parks, food products and more. What are some of the projects you’ve enjoyed the most?

The water park stuff was really fun because I had to cover a lot of surface area. They were basically playsets with an overall theme. So I think I enjoy that stuff the most—anything that helps create a whole world. So playsets that included figures and settings like Smurfs, Nintendo, and of course the breadth of characters in the SLUG Zombies line. I also like working on really specific projects like the 13-inch Ron Burgundy talking action figure at Beeline Creative.


I’m a big fan of SLUG Zombies, and there are many other toy collectors still interested in them as well. What was it like working on that project? How many character designs did you do?

It’s one of my favorite projects for sure. The idea originally came from the team headed by Brandon Giraldez over at Jakks. I was doing a lot of freelance design for them at the time. He came to me after having a few designers take a stab at the concept. They were trying to nail down the style; funny, playful, but very unique zombies. I knew what they were going for, since I was a pretty big M.U.S.C.L.E. fan as a kid. My brother and I had a bucket full of those little pink guys.

They liked my first ten or so concepts and it grew from there. I ended up designing every figure and drawing all the turnaround views for the sculptors. Brandon and his team would come up with a list of characters and concepts, and it was up to me to draw them. They came up with the great names and bios for all of them. I think we ended up with over a hundred unique designs.


What are some of your personal favorite SLUG designs?

A lot of the designs were actually based on co-workers at the Jakks office, so those were a lot of fun. But a few of the designs that I thought came out best were “Neil Armgone” the astronaut (loved his final sculpt), “Jeet Kune Dead” (for his use of a prop) and the zombie hunter “Johnny Two-Guns” (because he’s based on a combo of myself and Chuck Norris).

Designs for Neil Armgone, Jeet Kune Dead, Johnny Two-Guns

When the SLUG line was first announced, it was said that Monsters and Aliens series were planned, too. What details can you give us about what could have been for those two series? Did these ever make it further than concept illustrations?

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

S.L.U.G. Zombies: Series 3

Extra Crispy, Trashcan Sam, Decrepit Katie

Double Barrel Carol, zombie hunter

Johnny Two-Guns, Riled-Up Riley, Woody the Wrecker take on Zero Hero

The Deadlifter (photo has been "zombiefied" so the color doesn't exactly match that of the figure)

With its spotty distribution, JAKKS Pacific's S.L.U.G. Zombies line has been easy for some people to find in stores and difficult for others. Much to my frustration, I've fallen into the later camp. Series One and Three of the line have been available mainly at Toys 'R' Us, and the Toys 'R' Us near me doesn't carry S.L.U.G.s, but luckily I was recently able to stop into a Toys 'R' Us outlet store in a mall, and there I found Series Three waiting for me. I scooped up a full set of 16. In addition to some memorable zombie sculpts such as the Colonel Sanders-inspired "Extra Crispy" and the zombie superhero "Zero Hero," there are a bunch of fun human sculpts in this set (my personal favorite is bespectacled zombie hunter babe Double Barrel Carol). Check out a handful of Series Three characters in the above photos.

S.L.U.G. Zombies: Series 2

Grim Trekker, Cleopatra Commin'atcha, Maximus Cadaverous

Andrew Agony, Macho Mangler, Jump-Shot Rot

Dr. Outbreak, Teddy Terror, Mash-Up Mike, Stu B' You

Flesh-colored human figures: Gator Jones, Captain Payback

A few months ago I posted about the first series of S.L.U.G. Zombies, a new line of zombie-themed mini figures from JAKKS Pacific. Now I'm revisiting the line here because another outbreak of zombies has hit. Series 2 has arrived!

As with series 1, each figure in the new set is a zombie version of a certain character or type of person. For example, this time there's a basketball player, a tennis player, a chef (complete with a severed foot sticking out of his soup pot), and even not-so-subtle zombie takes on famous people like Mr. T and Macho Man. My personal favorite, though, is a zombiefied Cleopatra breaking out of her sarcophagus--it's a really rad looking figure, and a perfect companion to the series one "King Guts" pharaoh-zombie!

One important thing to note about series 2 is the introduction of flesh-colored human characters included to fight the zombies. While the zombies will always be cooler just for the fact that they're zombies, the human figures are really pretty great and add more fun and variety to the line.

To my knowledge, the 16 new figures haven't been spotted in physical stores yet, but pre-orders through the Entertainment Earth website have begun shipping (that's how I got mine). That is the one frustrating thing about this line so far: the fact that it's simply not available enough; the first series was found only at select Toys R Us and Walgreens stores, and while JAKKS has indicated that Target and K Mart would be carrying them, I have seen no reports of anyone actually finding them there yet. I really hope these toys see widespread distribution in stores soon because it would be a shame to see something so cool just fizzle out and die. Keep 'em coming, JAKKS, and get 'em in the stores!

The following figures are included in the series 2 twelve-pack:
Mash-Up Mike (Mr. T), Stu B. You (chef), Andrew Agony (tennis player), Cleopatra Commin'atcha, Dr. Outbreak (scientist), Jump-Shot Rot (basketball player), Macho Mangler (Macho Man/wrestler), Maximus Cadaverous (Roman gladiator), Teddy Terror (some sort of old fashioned hobo, or maybe Curly from The Three Stooges), Grim Trekker (explorer), and the two humans, Gator Jones and Captain Payback.

The following figures, not pictured above, are exclusive to the series 2 three-packs:
Mr. Jangles (chimp), Flesh-Eatin' Phil (zombie in a mailbox), Blazin' Basel (human), Buck Wilde (human).

Check out more SLUG Zombies pics in my Flickr set.

S.L.U.G. Zombies

Cap'n Scurvy Jack, King Guts, Erik the Dead

Gutslingin' Grimm, Grave Lincoln, Inspector Bones

Rigamortis Lourdes, Decayin' Dom, Brain-Eatin' Brandon

The Corroding Kid, Jon B. Gone, Neil Armgone

Zombie attack!

A SLUG with a couple of deadbeat cousins

12-pack coffin

Single blind pack coffin

What: A new line of mini figures that combines inspiration from classic lines such as M.U.S.C.L.E. and Monster in My Pocket with modern day zombie mania. While Z.O.M.B.I.E. from October Toys got there first (along with the Zombie Planet set of vending machine figures), S.L.U.G.--which stands for "Scary Little Ugly Guys"--is a very exciting toy line for a few reasons: there are already 16 different sculpts released with plans for many more (including other creatures such as monsters and aliens); this is the first mini figure line of its kind to see mainstream release for some time; and quite simply, they're awesome! The 2" zombies are made out of a soft plastic that falls somewhere in-between the materials used for M.U.S.C.L.E. and M.I.M.P. and come in a fitting green color that looks great on display. They're sold in a few different formats, including coffin-shaped 12-packs and single-packs as well as three-packs. Instead of being just basic zombies, all of the S.L.U.G. figures offer up a unique character--there's an astronaut zombie, a pirate zombie, a cheerleader zombie, and so on. This is a very cool toy line that will hopefully continue for a long time!

When: The initial wave of 16 different figures began to appear in winter 2011.

Where: So far available in the U.S. in certain Toys R Us stores. Single-packs have also been available in some Walgreens stores, and the JAKKS Pacific website also lists Target and K-Mart as retailers, although at the time of this post I haven't seen any reports of the toys being spotted at either.

Who: Released by JAKKS Pacific, Inc.